Back at it! - and look at these new Knights!

Wow, time flies when you aren't blogging!

Over the last 7 months my hobby time has been crushed by work travel, photography workshops, and renovating a 1950's house for family.  The sad part is I have even packed up miniatures and paints on several of these trips - but to no avail!

Anyway, enough complaining about me, have you guys seen the preview of the new Knights over at Warhammer Community?

The Grand Army of Shame

(Hey, they're not cardboard proxies! You ought to be pleased!)

A few weeks ago I drove down to Jacksonville, Florida, to participate in a day of gaming and 40k nerdery (that is a word!).  The week that proceeded it was a flurry of model building, basing and priming.  I didn't actually get any more models to a finished state, but at least it wasn't a Grey Tide swamping the enemy there!

Custom Dragoon Riders, pt 1

(How many different conversion parts can I put in one model?)

Here is what my first build of a rider for the Knight Household Auxiliaries looks like:

For those that are curious, here's the detailed breakdown of components:

Knights - and not mine!

(or here is a shameless plug for my friend Chris!)

If you haven't checked out his blog "Addicted to Resin", you absolutely need to!

Chris's "Tusker" Knight conversion

I think the quality of his work speaks for itself!

Digging out

I knew that March through May was going to be a busy three months, but I had no idea HOW busy!

Between a two week trip to Malaysia, teaching a photography workshop and running several photoshoots for customers, painting and modeling has taken a back seat!  At least I managed to field my Imperial Knight in a quick 1000pt game against Blood Angels.

Yes, those are Rogue Trader era Imperial Guardsmen being fielded with the Knight.  If the weapons loadout looks odd, it is because the Thermal Canon is a proxy for the Avenger Gatling Cannon, and the twin-lascannon on top is a proxy for the Icarus Autocannons.

I did find out how much I missed the D-weapon chainsword, as these Assault Marines tied up the Knight for 3 turns, even with his Stomp attack! (FNP from the Sanguinary Priest made close combat frustrating)

Still another week or two of craziness to go, so I had better stop writing now and get back to work!

Month 4 - Imperial Knight #2

(want to know what failure looks like?)

Okay, so it isn't the end of Month 4 yet... but I know I'll be traveling and will be too busy to make any more progress until April!  I am pretty frustrated with coming up short on this.

Month 4 - and it begins!

(or WAIT, what happened to Month 3??)

Okay, so I did take 2 months to do my Imperial Knight, but the parts for Knight #2 arrived today from the crew at +TheWarStore.com .  Time to get to work!

Month 2 - Imperial Knight #1 pt 6

(Holy Cow it is starting to look like an Imperial Knight!)

Well, almost done except for a bit of the recess wash and some touch up, and of course the decals.

Month 2 - Imperial Knight #1 pt 5

(or I'm REALLY behind, and I know it... and LOVE it!)

So, it is time to turn to on the base for the first Imperial Knight.  As you can see, I basecoated the entire thing in a light brown. (and yes, it was a Krylon spray can... HERESY!)

Month 2 - Imperial Knight #1 pt 4

(or Here goes nothing!!)

Just a quick test shot of the leg plates blue-tac'd onto the painted leg.  Techniques after the break!

Month 2 - Imperial Knight #1 pt 3

My God, it looks like a model!
(yeah, I'm behind and I know it!)

Okay, there is a lot more work to do, so I'll spare you the details of priming that you don't really care about!
(Other than to say I used Army Painter spray can primer and it worked out great!  I was skeptical, but the black is at least as good as the GW Black I've used before and the white was the best White Primer I've used.  No clumping and even spray coverage. but really, who cares... do you come to a modeling blog to hear me talk about primer?)

Month 2 - Imperial Knight #1 pt 2

Is it Month 3 already?

(Maybe that is why I gave myself a month of no purchases!)

a half-primered, partially-based, semi-magnetized Imperial Knight

So, I'm pretty happy to get here in a week's worth of work!

Month 2 - Imperial Knight #1 pt 1

(or I'm glad that I have 2 months to finish this one!)

  Sticking to the plan, it is time to start my build for Month 2, the first of 2 Imperial Knights.  With a kit this size, there is a lot of prep that goes into it!

3D-printed Knight

Instructions, who needs them?

   While I am very appreciative of the retirement gift from one of my fellow WH40K modelers, I am now figuring out one of the more frustrating parts of using 3D printed models.  THERE ARE NO PRINTED INSTRUCTIONS!!

Thankfully, the model designer left some basic instructions over at Thingverse or else I would be royally screwed!